RESCUE AT LAKE WILD

When someone shoots beavers whose dam has caused a flood in the Canadian small town of Willow Grove, Madi, Jack, and Aaron rescue kits, find the culprit, and figure out how to keep the beavers from attracting further violence.

This middle-grade wildlife mystery makes explicit homage to the work of Jane Goodall, whom Madi, who introduces herself as an “animal whisperer” like her late grandmother, is dying to meet. But after a gripping opening during which Madi swims underwater and up into a beaver lodge to rescue two orphaned kits, readers learn she has a choice: She can see Goodall in person at an upcoming gala or she can bring home the two kits, though her parents have forbidden her rescuing any more wildlife. She chooses to bring the kits home anyway. The rest of her first-person, present-tense narrative balances the difficulties of hiding and nurturing beaver kits with the work she and her friends—all 12 years old—do to solve the mystery and the town’s beaver problem. Johnson sets this firmly in the present day; they use iPods, smartphones, and ATVs. There’s helpful information about animal rescue, but she makes clear that the process isn’t easy. A professional wildlife rehabilitator praises Madi’s work but adds that ordinary people keeping wildlife “usually does more harm…than good.” The cover illustration suggests that Madi and Aaron are White while Jack, who hopes to be a game warden, has brown skin and long, straight black hair.

An appealing and informative wildlife adventure.